About this collection

The Mabel Payne Photograph Collection contains hundreds of photographic negatives taken by Payne and other local photographers between 1959 and 1970. These images depict historic structures such as Ainsley Hall (Robert Mills House), the Seibels House, the Hampton-Preston mansion, and others. It also depicts downtown neighborhoods that have since been lost through urban renewal projects. This collection is the property of the City of Columbia, and the originals reside with the city’s Historic Preservation Office. In 2016, Richland Library scanned and identified these images in order to preserve them for future historic research and preservation efforts and has made a selection of them available online through Local History Digital Collections.

About Mabel Payne

Mabel Bradley Payne (1910-2004) was originally from Abbeville, S.C., but later moved to New York and then worked in Williamsburg, Virginia, before coming to Columbia in the late 1950s. Payne soon became a Community Relations Specialist with the City of Columbia during a time of rampant demolition in the city’s historic downtown in the name of urban renewal. She expanded her role and served as a historic preservation pioneer, spearheading the efforts to save Ainsley Hall, a Robert Mills-designed house. She was constantly researching, recording and promoting the protection of historic properties, generating a wealth of information in the form of handwritten research notes and hundreds of photographs, many of which are the only surviving images of demolished buildings in the city’s historic downtown.

Explore a companion collection

Throughout her tenure at the City of Columbia, Mabel Payne worked closely with Joseph E. Winter, who served from 1955 to 1965 as Housing Inspector and from 1965 to 1980 as director of the Columbia Rehabilitation Commission. Explore the Joseph E. Winter Photograph Collection made available online through the University of South Carolina Libraries' Digital Collections.

Browse by envelope number in the Mabel Payne Photograph Collection

The rolls of negatives in the Mabel Payne Photograph Collection were labeled by Mabel Payne herself based on what images are on the rolls. To enable browsing by roll, the list below provides the envelope number, the label applied by Mabel Payne, and, as needed, a brief commentary by Local History librarians regarding the content of the rolls.

Envelope 1 - "Some old houses remaining in Columbia as of 1959 - East of Main, North of Gervais" - Old houses in Columbia in 1959 East of Main, North of Gervais

Envelope 2 - "Old houses remaining in Columbia as of 1959 - Arsenal Hill area West of Main" - Old houses in Columbia in 1959 in Arsenal Hill area, West of Main, North of Laurel

Envelope 3 - "Old houses - west side area from above and below Arsenal Hill to lower Park St." - Old houses in Columbia West of Main, South of Laurel